How did he discover the Universal Law of Gravitation?
In 1666, a young 24-year-old Englishman named Isaac Newton was walking in his garden when he saw an apple fall to the ground from the branch of an apple tree… This event, which repeats millions of times in nature, had nothing extraordinary about it.
But according to a legendary story, this simple event became a universal source of inspiration for the mathematician Newton. It is said that he derived the enormous laws that elevated Newton to the rank of the founder of modern mechanics from this apple incident.
When was he born?
Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day in 1642 in a small village house near the town of Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. He spent his childhood years on his father’s farm.
What was Newton’s school life like?
Young Newton attended a school near Grantham. Although he was not the top of his class, he showed outstanding aptitude in drawing and mechanics. Indeed, during these years, he built a water clock and a sundial on his own.
One of his uncles, considering this talent, requested that he continue his education at Cambridge University. In 1661, Newton entered Trinity College in Cambridge and attended the lectures of the famous mathematician, Isaac Barrow. Barrow recognized that his student possessed extraordinary intelligence.
When did Newton start teaching at university?
Following the death of his mentor, Newton was appointed to the vacant chair of mathematics (1667). He was only 25 years old at the time, making him one of the youngest professors in the history of science.
In 1666, a terrible plague epidemic broke out in London. Newton had no choice but to return to his birthplace, Woolsthorpe. During the epidemic, Newton devoted himself to scientific research on his farm. In the complete silence, he found the opportunity to review certain ideas that had long preoccupied his mind and appeared to him as an intuition.
How did he establish the Universal Law of Gravitation?
Indeed, why did objects, which initially had no velocity, fall directly to the earth?
Did the planet we live on possess a force of attraction that compelled these objects to come towards it? If such a force existed, the force that prevented the Moon from leaving its orbit around the Earth, and even kept all the other planets orbiting the Sun, should not be any different from it.
Newton concluded that all bodies, without exception, exert a mutual gravitational force on one another.
He tried to solidify these principles he established mathematically, and thus one of the fundamental laws of physics emerged: the **Universal Law of Gravitation**.
Newton defined this physical law as follows: “The gravitational force that two material points exert on each other is directly proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.”
What are the principles of the Universal Law of Gravitation?
In 1670, Newton completed his fundamental work, **”Pro-positiones de motu”** (Propositions concerning motion). But this work was only a section of his massive treatise, **”Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica,”** which was entirely written in Latin and published in its entirety in 1687. It must be said that even just one of the discoveries or inventions Newton put forward would have been sufficient, and more than enough, to make him a world-renowned scientist. Apart from these, Isaac Newton studied the tidal phenomena in the seas and the spectrum of sunlight. He invented several new types of lenses and mirrors. He produced the telescope named after him.
In the field of mathematics, he made a creation at least as important as his work in mechanics: He laid the foundations of **differential calculus**.
When was Newton knighted (declared Sir)?
Newton was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1690. However, he did not have a brilliant political career. In 1697, he was appointed Warden of the Mint in London. He thus settled in London, living in a luxurious house gifted to him. Around 1703, he was granted the title **”Sir”** by Queen Anne. Newton became the first scientist to be granted the title of Sir up until that era. Despite all the honors and titles, Newton maintained his humble and reserved character. When asked how he made all these scientific discoveries and inventions, he replied: “I have no exceptional ability of vision, but I am patient enough to think about a subject for a long time.”
When and how did Newton die?
In 1725, Newton contracted a lung disease, left London, and settled in Kensington. Here he was able to continue his research comfortably. On March 2, 1727, he came to London for the last time to attend a meeting of the **”Royal Society”** (of which he was the president). He fell ill upon his return and died on March 20, 1727, at the age of 85.
Newton’s death had a wide resonance throughout the world. A magnificent funeral was held for him. The great French philosopher of the era, Voltaire, was also present at the ceremony. Newton’s tomb is in Westminster Abbey, where famous British dignitaries are buried. We read the following lines, taken from the Latin poet Lucretius, on the base of the statue erected in the garden of Trinity College, where Newton studied and taught: “He surpassed the limits of human power by the might of his mind.”
The discovery of the planet Neptune
One hundred and twenty years after Newton’s death, on September 23, 1846, the German astronomer Johann Galle discovered a new planet. This new planet, whose location was determined by the calculations of the French astronomer Le Verrier, was a new celestial body that confirmed Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation.
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